Quakes – Go

Away Day – The cock crows, you get up, you eat toast, you get on a bus, you see your soccer mates, you drive hundreds of miles, you sing, you get there, your team scores, you sing louder, you win, you laugh, they cry, you party, you collapse, you get up, you run cold water on your head, you drink coffee, you get home, you go to work, you rub your eyes and think – the Quakes are in the playoffs?

Next week – Los Angeles Galaxy v San Jose Earthquakes, Sunday October 20, Los Angeles – it might be still a dream but then again – if San Jose pulls out a playoff card in the last two weeks of the MLS season, magicians around the country will stand and applaud. For film buffs, call it the Great Escape. For Jesuits in the friary, here comes Lazarus. If tenacity and desire were rare gems, you’d find the Quakes at the front of the seam digging them out.

If you love football – and you like to eat the Grand Slam breakfast at the Buttonwillow Dennys on Highway 5 en route to Los Angeles – then take a road trip to the game. Bill it as extraordinary.

Read Black’s column in the Chronicle Friday, Mexico’ moment of truth in the World Cup